ABSTRACT
The National Congregations Study (NCS)-III cooperation rate—the percentage of contacted congregations who agreed to participate—were 87 percent. This chapter analyses a range because the exact response rate depends on assumptions about the congregations associated with General Social Survey respondents who declined to nominate a congregation after stating that they attended more than once a year. If the non-nominated congregations are not counted against the NCS-III response rate, the NCS-III response rate is 78 percent. Overall the NCS-III sample constitutes a nationally representative sample of American religious congregations in 2012. American congregations have become more ethnically diverse since 1998, and the NCS helps to better understand the exact nature of that increased diversity. The NCS contains several indicators of congregational size. Another trend in American religion’s social organization is that more congregations are unaffiliated with a denomination or convention. The median denominationally affiliated congregation gave 8 percent of its income to the denomination in 1998 and only 4 percent in 2012.
